Perfect Mess
by Eternal Afterglow
Summary: When a young civilian is brought onto the base everyone starts to realize what a perfect mess they have made. This perfect mess has everybody singing for something, someone, sometimes... AU season 9
1. Prologue

Title: Perfect Mess

Author: Eternal Afterglow

Rating: T/M-

Summary: When a young civilian is brought onto the base everyone starts to realize what a perfect mess they have made. AU season 9

This perfect mess has everybody singing for something, someone, sometimes...

**Prologue**

A solitary figure stood in a small ring of light, head bowed lightly, small hands clasped behind its back.

"A verdict has been reached!" a single voice echoed around the emptiness of the large, dark room, "Loki, you have been found guilty of illegally experimenting on a human subject. From here on out, you are banned from operating your own ship and you have been forbidden from furthering your research without the supervision of another qualified scientist. Should you defy these regulations your punishment will be far more severe. Your human specimen is to be relocated to another human inhabited world."

**Three Years Later**

Kaylee shivered as her eerily black eyes flickered across the scenery passing by. This would be the sixteenth foster home that she would live in. What was so wrong with her? Why couldn't anyone keep her for more than a few months? '_Oh yeah'_ she thought to herself, _'They all think I am crazy.' _

"Kaylee," The soft voice of her social worker broke the silence inside the car, "we are almost there, hun"

The nine-year-old nodded distractedly, still absorbed in her thoughts and the frozen countryside outside her window. 'I'm going to stay here. I will be good. I won't say anything. I won't be a burden. They will keep me. I am going to stay' she vowed silently to herself.

Kaylee sighed as she collapsed into bed. It had been almost a year since she arrived at the Brown's home. She had kept her promise, she didn't talk about aliens anymore, she stayed out of way, she said please and thank you, she made her bed and kept her room clean.

She closed her eyes thinking about the events that had transpired that day. She wouldn't be staying here for long now…

/flashback/

_Kaylee took a deep breath and pushed the heavy door to the front office open. Glancing at the crumpled note in her hand she stepped farther into the room. _

_"May I help you?" a friendly looking woman with auburn hair asked. Kaylee silently handed her note to the lady and looked down, studying her familiar shoes.._

_"Ah! Kaylee, I was waiting for you! My name is Allison Smith, let's go to my office and chat for a while?" the lady said as she usurered the girl towards one of the many doors lining the walls of the room._

_Kaylee sat silently in the offered chair._

"_Do you know what confidential means?" Allison asked. Kaylee nodded._

"_Okay, now I've noticed, and so have some other students, that you've been rather quiet this year. Has anything been bothering you?"_

_Kaylee's gaze flashed over the women sitting in front of her, "not really."_

"_Have you been having problems at home?"_

_Kaylee shook her head negatively._

"_Are you worried about having to leave this foster home? Or worried about what the other kids think of you not always living in the same place? Did something happen in a past foster home that you're worried about happening again?"_

_The girl blinked in surprise, "um… Maybe?"_

_Allison just raised her eyebrow, "Does it have something to do with the Thompsons, your first foster parents?"_

'_What? Why is she asking about this…' Kaylee thought. "Not really." She stated simply._

_Kaylee's eyes closed momentarily, before she shivered. She had been in this situation too many times to count. And nothing good ever came from the doctors' interrogations before._

"_Are you sure?" Alison went on flipping though a manila folder. "According to your chart that's when you started moving around a bunch."_

"_I'm just a bad kid." Kaylee looked down at her shoes wishing she could be anywhere but here._

"_You don't seem bad; you get good grades you don't ever get in fights." Alison's voice was comforting, but it didn't matter to Kaylee, she just wanted to leave._

"_I'm better now."_

"_What changed that?" Alison closed the folder and looked at the girl's worried face._

"_I'm not sure. Maybe I just grew up." she looked into Alison's eyes. 'Why can't everyone just leave me be?'_

"_Do you think you 'grew up' differently from everyone else; For lack of a better term, normal?" Alison questioned._

_/"Why can't you be normal like everybody else? What's wrong with you? No one can ever love a crazy person! What is all this talk about aliens... HUH? No one will ever want you!"/_

"_No…" Kaylee whispered back, a far off look on her face._

"_No what?" said Alison sitting up straighter and paying more attention to the now frightened looking girl._

"_Please...I promise I'll be good! Give me one more chance..." Kaylee blinked and her eyes began to refocus._

"_Okay," Alison sounded concerned, "one more chance at what exactly?"_

'_Oh crap…' "I... I'll talk to people.. I'll be normal. Just don't send me away again."_

"_What do you mean by that?" Alison raised her eyebrows, she had read about her being committed before, but she had supposedly never mentioned it again, dancing around the subject._

"_You called me in here... because I'm different. I can be normal... just let me try!" Kaylee was beginning to hyperventilate._

"_No, I didn't. I called you in here to see if anything was wrong." She watched Kaylee's face intently as the girl looked around the office. "Just calm down okay?"_

_The words Alison was saying didn't penetrate Kaylee's concentration. 'I'm going to stay here. I will be good. I won't say anything. I won't be a burden. They will keep me. I am going to stay' "I can't be normal can I?" She questioned making eye contact with Alison._

_Allison almost staggered backwards at the intensity of the girl's inky black gaze. _

_Alison stood up a walked to the phone on her desk; Kaylee began to fidget in her seat. "Kate? Could you send the kids to Joe this afternoon, thanks." She set the phone down with a loud click. "Kaylee?" She asked concerned at the blank expression on the girl face._

"_You think I am crazy, don't' you?" Kaylee asked quietly fearing the answer._

"_What?" she almost yelled, and then calmly asked. "What led you to that idea?"_

"_The way you look at me... it's the same way that they did…" As the sentence went on her voice faded. _

"_They who?"_

"_The doctors." Her breathing started to pick up once again. "They would always talk to me… then send me to another home... they would look at me like I was a hopeless case."_

"_Kaylee, just calm down, okay?" a comforting hand landed on Kaylee quivering shoulders._

"_You are going to send me away again... just like they did-" Her voice was barley auditable._

_Alison gently griped her arm to bring her back to the present as her gaze drifted off. "No, I'm not."_

"_-Because I am crazy," Kaylee continued as if she didn't hear Mrs. Smith._

"_What makes you think that? Have some of the kids been calling you names?"_

"…_You don't think I'm crazy yet, because I haven't told you anything. You don't know me. When you do, you will send me away... they did..." Kaylee whispered as she stood up and began pacing the length of the room._

"_Who were they?" Her eyes fallowed the girl's movements._

"_All of them." _

"_All of whom?"_

"_All of the people who have taken care of me... they called me crazy… because I told them things... that they didn't believe" Alison began to flip though the manila folder on her lap once more._

"_Why didn't they believe you?" Alison looked up genuinely interested in what the girl had to say._

"_They weren't real they said... that it was all in my head. That I was a freak"_

"_Okay, well you want to sit down and explain to me?"_

"_No… you will send me away too"_

"_Your file says something about aliens…"_

_Kaylee stopped dead. "Please don't send me away." She was on the verge of tears_

"_Take some deep breaths okay?"_

_Kaylee backed into the far wall, "Don't send me away like them! I said I would change, that I would be good, why don't you believe me? Why can't anyone believe me?" _

_Alison stood up and walked towards her. "Just acting like something is right, doesn't make it right."_

_Kaylee was mumbling to herself, she slide down the wall all the way to the floor and hugged her knees rocking slightly._

'_Oh, I hope she doesn't end up like Damien, that was horrible, he hasn't recovered and still isn't off the meds.' Alison thought to herself._

_Kaylee's head snapped up._

_Alison walked over and knelt at her side and put a gentle hand on her shoulder._

"_You do think I am crazy." Kaylee stated, lifting her head to look at the woman in front of her._

'_Oh god, she's just like him, withdrawn and jumpy and unpredictable. Damnit!'_

_Kaylee backed up as much as she could to the corner of the room. "Please… please…"_

"_Just calm down, okay?" Alison was eyeing the phone._

_Kaylee tried desperately to control her frantic breathing._

"_That's it, deep easy breaths." 'God, I hope I don't ever have to call that number again. Please don't make me Kaylee. Please.'_

_Kaylee started to mutter once again 'I haven't even said anything about the aliens and she still thinks I am crazy…' "What's wrong with me?"_

"_I honestly don't know, but if you help me we can get to the bottom of it"_

_Kaylee kept her eyes on her shoes, praying this was all a dream._

_Alison bowed her head to her chest in deep thought 'Damnit, I really don't want to send her to mental heath, it might be worse for her, okay pull yourself together, you can get her though this. You did with Damien' She looked back up at Kaylee. "Do you want to tell me about the aliens?"_

_Kaylee began to panic "hey, clam down alright?"_

"_I'M NOT LIKE DAMIEN! STOP SAYING I AM! You think I am schizophrenic... just like him… the other doctors said that too… but they didn't find anything. Just read the file!" She pulled her knees closer._

_Alison walked over to the phone and started to dial._

"_NO! DON'T TELL ANYONE! Please…"_

"_Just calm down!"_

"_Please... pleas...e" Kaylee was breaking down right before her eyes, the tight grip the girl had on her knees slackened, and she slouched the floor and lay on her side. Alison set the phone down and walked over and began to rub her back offering comforting words. Kaylee's only response was flinching away at every touch._

_Alison gave up and made her way back to the phone on her desk. _

_She didn't expect what she heard next._

"_You're right." Allison spun around to face the child._

_The desperation was completely gone from her ebony eyes, replaced with a bitter acceptance. Allison could see that the child was trying to mask the conflicting emotions flashing through her eyes. Kaylee took a deep breath and broke eye contact. Suddenly she looked like nothing was wrong, the morbid resignation she displayed just moments ago was gone._

_Allison resumed dialing the phone._

_Kaylee jumped up and lunged for the door. She fumbled with the door before it finally gave way and sprinted out of the building. Alison dropped the phone as a "Hello, El Paso county mental health." echoed from the other end. _

"_Kaylee NO!" she sprinted after the girl as a bewildered janitor watched. By the time Alison made it to the front door Kaylee was almost off campus. That would not look good on a report._

/end flashback/

Kaylee sat on her bed hugging her knees; she had run out of things to keep her busy. Her room and bathroom we're spotless, she had done the laundry, packed her bag and was waiting for Mr. and Mrs. Brown get home from work, and then for her life to change once again, new home, new 'parents', new room, new everything.

She heard the door downstairs open and the dog ran out of the room to greet Mr. Brown, her only safety line had just left her to free fall.

She didn't leave her bed, not wanting to make the situation worse for herself, she just sat there praying that the next home, she could act 'normal' and not get in this mess.

Three hours later, Kaylee was getting ready for bed, hoping that having not heard anything from Mr. or Mrs. Brown meant that they weren't getting rid of her, when she heard someone coming up the stairs.

Mr. Brown burst into the room. Kaylee could smell the alcohol in his breath from her bed. "I didn't mean to! I'm sorry! Please…" she begged. He just walked over to the bed and slapped her. She sat in stunned silence.

"That's for being a stupid, good for nothing orphan. You can't keep your damn mouth shut can you?" He drew his hand back again and Kaylee just tucked into a ball waiting for the impact. "The money they pay us for you isn't even worth it!" Kaylee felt the fist coiled with her side as she whimpered in pain another blow came then another and another.

Once the beatings let up for a moment she ran out of the room and outside. She didn't pay attention to the fact that the beatings had detained do to the fact the Mr. Brown was unconscious on the floor, she just ran for her life.

As the girl's bare feet slapped the cold March ground she didn't even feel the gravel biting into her soft flesh, nor the massive pain in her side. She just ran towards the mountains. 'Half a mile' she thought to herself 'half a mile and they shouldn't be able to find me among the trees.'

After running that half a mile she quickly realized she would have to go further into the mountains due to the lack of leaves on the trees. After running for another hour she was too exhausted to go on, and collapsed at the base of a tree. Her breathing didn't ease up it just got worse, she soon realized how much trouble she was in. her feet we're covered in dirt and blood and her cramps in her side weren't fading.

As black began to fill her vision and she slid down the base of the tree, she heard the crunch of the soft gravel beside her, and then the world was gone.

A/N: Please review.


	2. Chapter 1

Title: Perfect Mess

Author: Eternal Afterglow

Rating: T

Summary: When a young, injured, civilian is brought onto the base everyone is stunned at how much she knows. AU season 9.

A/N: Just to clear anything up with the timeline. Because I love Jack too much, I couldn't take him out, therefore instead of General Landry, General O'neill is commander of the base. Cameron Mitchell is still a member of SG-1.

We also apologize in advance for any spelling/grammar/medical information errors.

Thank you for reviewing!

**Chapter 1**

_In the part of this universe that we know there is often great injustice. The good often suffer, and the wicked often prosper, and one hardly knows which is the more annoying.  
-Bertrand Russell_

One of the two airmen stepped cautiously towards the figure huddled on the ground and felt for a pulse. "Get a medic up here."

The other airmen grabbed his radio "I have a medical emergency on the surface, I repeat a medical emergency on the surface."

"What's your position?" Crackled back though the device.

"About 230 yards east south-east of the north entrance."

"Medical team is in route EAT of zero five minutes."

"Roger that." He signed off the radio then looked at the kneeling airmen on the ground next to the girl. "What the hell happened to her?"

"I don't know, but her parents must be going crazy right now looking for her." He took off his jacket and placed it over her cool body, shielding her from the bitter, March breeze.

Five minutes latter Lam and two medics made it to their position baring a stretcher and bags filled with field equipment. "She's a civilian." Stated the first medic to reach her side and felt for a pulse before snapping into action. "Pulse is 164."

"Do you know how long she's been down?" question Lam as she moved the jacket aside and put her stethoscope to the small figures chest.

"We we're doing a routine patrol and saw her at the base of the tree panting pretty hard and then she fell over, about five minutes ago."

Lam took the stethoscope off the girl chest and placed it around the back of her own neck. She lifted up the girl's shirt and felt her abdomen; her worst fears we're confirmed… it was ridged. One glance as her chest told her that she probably had broken bones on top of it. "She has massive internal bleeding and broken ribs as well as other injuries. Let's get her to the infirmary"

"Since a civilian shouldn't we call an ambulance and send her to the children's hospital?" question one of the airmen, the other nodded his head. "The general won't be happy about a civilian being brought in."

"You let me worry about the general. And it'll be a least 20 minutes before an ambulance can get her there, and by then she might be dead, I don't know how she made it this long." Lam grabbed her bag and ran after the two medics who had gotten a head start on taking the young girl to the infirmary.

Lam caught up just as they we're placing the girl on a gurney and the elevator doors opened to take them down to level 21. As soon as the doors opened Lam ran ahead of the two medics that we're pushing the gurney. "I have what looks to be a young teen found topside that appears to have internal bleeding and is going into shock. Get OR 2 prepped and call in Warner." She barked at the nurses in the room.

As the gurney finally reached the infirmary, everyone jumped into the jobs they knew only to well due to off world accidents. "Hang a unit of o-neg and have four more on standby." Right then we're one of those times she was glad she went with the theory of 'if you're O negative you get to donate blood, congratulations'. "I want her prepped for surgery. Where's Warner?" she yelled.

"He said he's on his way up." Just as the nurse finished that sentence he came in though the doors.

"What have we got?" he asked taking the offered stethoscope from Lam.

"Internal bleeding, she is in shock, cracked ribs, lacerations to the feet and probably something we can't see."

"Alright, I'm going to scrub in. I want Sarah, Caleb, Evan and Kim." The three nurses and surgeon went to scrub in. "and make sure the OR is prepped and I want some O neg on standby."

"Way ahead of you," Lam said as she was dashing around trying to stabilize the young girl.

One of the nurses turned to lam, "do you have any idea who she is?"

"Nope, she was found topside."

"So what should I write on the cart 'girl found topside?'"

"Sure we'll worry about that later." Once Lam was satisfied that the girl was stable enough, she was wheeled into the OR. "Good luck," she whispered as she shut the door knowing there was a huge chance the girl wouldn't make it out of the OR, but knowing it was also her only chance.

"Cameron, you're as bad as Jack, I swear…" Daniel let out a yelp of pain.

"It's going to need some stitches, but I think your going to live. Go figure." Lam said sarcastically as she pulled off her gloves.

"You know, for being an empty planet, P2X-984" Daniel cut off Cameron.

"Aurora,"

"What?"

"Aurora, that's what the natives called it."

"FINE, Aurora, can be dangerous. I mean come on! Obviously that rock was placed in a bad spot, they're evil people! HEY, watch where you stick that thing!" Daniel Sam started laughing and Teal'c looked quite amused.

Just then the door swung open and in strode General Jack O'neill. "Well Mitchell, you appear to be doing a fine good job taking my place as the official SG-1 pain in the ass."

"Sir."

"At ease Carter."

"Jack… you know that really isn't a required job…"

"Are you kidding? Of course it is!"

"Wha," a confused and pained moan came from the other side of the room. Carolyn Lam Quickly made it to the bedside of the girl who had just emitted the sound.

"Hey sweetie, just stay calm okay?" She said shining her penlight in her eyes. She tried to pull away but hissed in pain. "Shh, it's okay. You we're found out side really sick and we brought you here and you had surgery. Can you tell me your name?" the girl was still whimpering and trying to get up. "Get me 7 cc's of diazepam." She said the nurse that was taking the vitals. Within a few minutes the girls was asleep once more.

"What the hell we're you thinking keeping her in here?" Jack asked once Lam had giving the indication she was asleep once more.

"She wasn't as stable as I would have liked to see before putting her in a different room, and I gave her enough sedative to keep her unconscious for another two hours, but in her condition I expected it to be something like a day before she woke up."

"Well you we're wrong, let's just hope that she didn't hear us talking about another planet, that or that she wakes up and thinks it was a dream."

"It seems odd to keep calling her 'she'." Daniel said ignoring the nurse that was stitching up his arm.

"Well, she didn't tell me her name, so I guess we could give her one for now. Currently her Chart is unlabeled which gets awfully confusing."

"Adriana," Daniel spoke up.

Everyone spun around to face him. "What?" Daniel asked defensively.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

…

_I am not much more than an animal which has been taught to dance by blows and starvation_

_-Nietsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra_

…

"The girl that was found topside, Adriana, woke up again about an hour ago. She seemed to be in a lot of pain and pretty disoriented. She didn't speak directly to me, but I overheard some of her muttering… Sir, she was talking about this place being similar to the place with the aliens. At first I thought she was delusional, but then she said something about aliens pretending to be gods, that she was the only person who knew. I couldn't understand much after that. It might not be more than a delirious child's mutterings, but I thought it was too much of a coincidence to not look into it."

General Jack O'Neill nodded towards the doctor as she concluded her report. "You're right. We need to figure out who this girl is. If there is a leak somewhere within the SGC it needs to be taken care of." He looked at everyone seated around the large table. "Carter, Daniel, look into who she is. See if you can get your hands on any missing person reports. Mitchell, Teal'c, I need you to join in on a R&R mission with SG-5 and SG-6; their scientist went missing after he touched something he shouldn't have." He sent a glare at Daniel who smiled innocently back. "Doctor Lam, keep me updated on Adriana's condition and page me when she is lucid enough to talk to me. You are dismissed."

Carolyn Lam collapsed onto the small couch in her office. It had been a relatively quiet day; SG-1 was the only team that gated home today. They were fairly simple post-mission check-ups. And then the girl had woken up.

Something had clawed at her heart when those beautiful black eyes, had fluttered open, piercing her soul, begging her to end the hurting, to release the child from the suffering.

The raw pain expressed in the girl's glossed eyes had done something to her. And it scared her to death.

She, Dr Lam, had seen other's pain, she had seen that look before, but it had never slapped her in the face the way Adriana's had. There was something special about this girl.

She sighed and stood up. She was supposed to be working, not relaxing on her couch.

Carolyn walked from bed to bed, checking vitals and charts before moving on to the next. As she entered the room where the young girl had been staying she was meet with the sight of her tangled in the sheets breathing heavily.

"Adriana," she spoke softly to her.

"No, I'll be good, just don't hit me again." She spoke from the midst of a nightmare. "No, no, they're real." Carolyn couldn't stand watching her like this.

"Wake up, Adriana, wake up." she put her hand on the girl's shoulder and she jerked awake.

Adriana flew off the bed and backed into the corner of the room between a cabinet and the wall. "Go away," she whispered barley auditable.

"Calm down sweetie, you had a nightmare that's all." She shook her head and slowly rocked, knees clutched to her chest. Carolyn stood up and walked to the page button and requested Daniel to come down as soon as he could. Within a few minutes she was quietly filling him in on the current situation.

'_This just isn't fair,_' though Daniel to himself as her watched the terrified girl rock back and forth slowly, muttering to herself, '_she shouldn't be like this. She shouldn't be a thousand feet under a mountain. She shouldn't be withdrawn like this. She shouldn't be treated like she's nuts._'

He cautiously sat down on the ground several yards from the girl. "Hey, I'm Daniel. This is Carolyn. She helped you get better."

The only reaction Daniel noticed from the girl was her intense gaze flitted from his own face to Carolyn's and back.

Dr. Lam squatted down beside Daniel, "Hey there." She said sheepishly. "Are you in any pain?" she motioned to the girl's arm where the IV had ripped out.

Adriana wrapped her arms around her defensively and stiffly shook her head negatively. "Are you sure?"

"M'fine" The girl's soft voice carried around the room.

"Okay then, do you want to come out of there?" Daniel asked as he extended his arm towards the child huddled in the corner. Adriana shrunk back at the movement.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to help you." He tried to reassure her.

Adriana looked inquisitively at the outstretched hand, then up to the man's face, searching for, and finding his innermost secrets, judging his character. She eventually broke the gaze and tentatively reached for his hand.

Daniel was helping her to stand when he heard a pained gasp escape from the girl. Dr. Lam stepped forward to help steady her, which caused Adriana to flinch back, aggravating her injuries more.

The doctor stepped back, observing the child's hitched breathing and eyes, tightly screwed up in pain. She quickly turned to retrieve the appropriate medications while hollering over her shoulder for Daniel to get the girl into bed.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul, and yet no one ever comes to sit by it._

_-Vincent van Gogh_

Dr. Lam reentered the room to find Adriana sitting stiffly on the bed and Daniel standing a few feet away watching the girl intently. "I have something to help the pain, do you want it?"

Adriana stared at her blankly and subtly shrugged one shoulder. Carolyn slowly approached the girl and started preparing to reinsert the IV into the girl's arm. Daniel found it somewhat disturbing how the girl impassively watched the needle slide under her skin.

Thoughts were flying around inside of Adriana's head. She didn't want these people to send her back to social services, but she doubted that would happen.

"Okay, you should feel better soon. Can you tell us your name?"

Adriana's dark eyes flicked between Daniel and Carolyn several times, finally landing on the former. Her soft voice held no emotion when she spoke, "They named me Kaylee when they found me. You called me Adriana didn't you? That's a pretty name," Her attention then turned to Lam, small brow furrowed in thought, "You brought me here, didn't you? Even thought you knew you would get in trouble… why?"

"Uh. Well, yes- I did- you would have died if I hadn't." Carolyn had been surprised at the question. These weren't the questions a normal child would ask after waking up in a strange place they had never seen before. "How- how did you end up on the mountain in the first place?"

The girl raised her eyebrow skeptically, "I thought that would be obvious, I walked there."

Daniel snorted slightly at the look on Lam's face. "You said they named you Kaylee when they found you? Who?"

The figure on the bed shrugged and looked at her hands, "I don't know. They told me that someone found me and brought me to the police, who gave me to the people who were going to be my foster parents. I was little then. They said I was around six years old or something. They said I didn't talk for months. They didn't know my name. I didn't know my name. So they called me Kaylee." She looked back up at Daniel, "Please don't make me go back there."

Lam stepped in, "You live in a foster home?" the girl nodded, "They did this to you?"

The girl on the bed stiffened and Daniel glared at the doctor. He slowly sat on the bed beside the girl, "It's okay, you don't have to talk about it right now. You know, I grew up in foster homes too. My parents died when I was little." Her dark eyes looked up at him, "I hated it." She nodded in agreement.

"Have you lived with them since you were found?" Lam asked.

The head full of dark hair shook slightly, "sixteen."

"What?" Lam asked.

"Sixteen foster homes."

Daniel was about to ask another question when the girl announced that she was tired, effectively closing the situation.

'_I don't want them to send me away again. I don't want to go back to Social Services. These people are nice. I **will** be good this time. Then I won't have to go back.' _She thought to herself as she drifted off to sleep.

……

**A/N:** Thank you for reviewing everyone. I apologize for the short chapter. Tori received some bad news a couple days ago and probably won't be writing for a while. Therefore, I am writing by myself. Which means no beta reading, and either shorter chapters or a couple weeks between updates.

Personally, I prefer longer chapters and fewer updates, but some people are the other way around. **Please review and let me know what you want.**

This is a co-written fic because both Tori and I have very different writing styles. Physically, I can't write parodies or any humor, other than my own witty, sarcastic sense of humor. Yeah.. So the next few chapters will be filled with angsty goodness. I'm just warning you.


	5. Chapter 4

_With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves._

_-Eric Hoffer_

"Hiya Daniel!" Jack O'Neill hollered as he entered the briefing room, "What did you want to tell me?"

"Well, Adriana woke up again, and she said some odd things." Daniel said standing next to the table.

"She did... did she?" Questioned Jack. He sat down at the head of the table; Daniel sat down next to him.

"Yeah, like, seeming to know what we we're thinking."

"Did you figure out who she was?"

"Not more then we knew before, other then she is a foster child."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Did she say anything about the aliens she was err… talking about earlier."

"Well, no. But she did say some things that lead me to think that it's come up other times. In foster homes…" He trailed off remembering how hard it had been moving around, never allowed to develop a true bond with any one family, or the trust that is so needed as a child.

"So... we should check in with social services to see who she is... if someone on base might have met her. What did you say about her knowing what you we're thinking?"

"Nothing specific, but mentioned things Lam or I we're thinking."

"Okay…I would like to talk to her before we do anything more. Do you know if she's awake?"

"The answer is no." Lam said she walked into the room and set the stack of folders she was carrying down on the table. "These are the reports you wanted sir. Anyways, I gave her some pain medication, one of its side effects is sedation, and she's pretty much out of it right now."

"When will I be able to talk to her?" the General questioned.

"Next time she wakes up, without flipping out to the point of injuring herself, I'll page you down to the infirmary."

"And that will be when? An hour, a day, a week or more?

"Can't say for sure, but should be within a two day time frame."

"Okay, let me know when. Anything else you needed to talk to me about?"

"No, not really, but it might do her some good to get off base, fresh air. Once she is recovered that is. If I'm right in thinking she's been abused, being in a small room with strange people would scare her a bit."

"I agree sir." Lam stated in response to Daniel theory. "She does have some signs of having been abused, and that would help explain the condition she arrived in.

Jack nodded. "We'll think about that once I've talk to her. Dismissed.

Adriana groaned slightly as she began to come back to consciousness.

"Hey there sleepy head. How you feeling?" Lam soft voice filled the room. She was moving about checking her vitals and jotting them down in her chart.

Adriana just blinked impassively at her. "Is it one blink for yes, two for no?"

Adriana glared, not amused. "One glare for yes two for no?" Adriana glared harder still. "Is that my cue to shut the hell up?" Lam tried to get a smiled out of the girl. Adriana sighed and rolled over to face the wall still.

"I've got someone who wants to talk to you." Adriana rolled back over and raised her eyebrow at that. "The general of this base."

Jack poked his head though the door. "Ah, I hear my name… wonderful name… isn't it?"

"Sure sir." Lam responded raising the back of the bed as Adriana tried to sit up.

"Did you page Daniel and Sam yet?"

"Not yet, but I can if you would like."

"Sure." Jack walked over to the girl's bed side and lam walked over to the phone on the wall and requested Daniel and Sam to come down.

"What should I call you?" Jack asked. "Daniel said your name is Kaylee, but he still calls you Adriana- Ana actually. But I could call you something completely-" Jack was interrupted by the young girl's subdued voice.

"Adriana.. Ana I don't care,"

Daniel and Sam walked into the room. "Hey there. Feeling better?" Daniel questioned as he walked to her bedside, Adriana nodded. "Good, maybe we can get out of here sometime soon on good behavior.

Adriana looked around at the other people in the room with pleading eyes, she hated being locked up, she felt like a prisoner.

"I want to run a few more tests first, and let her recover a bit more. Maybe in three or four days if the tests come back negative. I'll be back in a minute" Lam said as she turned towards the door with a clipboard in her hand.

Adriana nodded slowly. Her beautiful obsidian eyes drifted back to Jack; observing him fiddling with a piece of rubber tubing that he must have picked up.

Daniel watched the girl's brow furrow in confusion_. 'Probably wondering why an Air Force General is acting like a kid',_ he thought as he laughed quietly.

Jack looked up from the tubing when he heard Daniel's chuckle. It was then that he noticed that Adriana was staring at him. The General raised his eyebrow questioningly, looking into her dark eyes. She quickly broke the eye contact, inhaling stiffly.

"er.. so Adriana, Daniel said you live in a foster home. We were going to contact Social Services to let them know you were okay. But Daniel here seemed to think it would be better if we didn't. Is there someone you would like us to contact for you?" Sam asked, straight and to the point, as usual.

The girl shook her head, still intrigued by Jack. "Are you sure?" Adriana's attention finally shifted to Sam, "I'm sure."

"Okay, but we are going to have to contact Social Services as soon as you get better," Sam told the girl. Adriana bit her lip slightly and turned towards Daniel.

"You understand. You know what it's like… what it's like to not be wanted," She paused for a second, "That's why you work- no, live here. Because they want you," she motioned distractedly towards Jack and Sam.

"You also know that false hope is better than none at all. If you told Social Services about me, they probably wouldn't care. It's better not to know that no one cares, and think they do, than to know for sure that no one cares."

To say Daniel was astonished would be an understatement. He hadn't actually thought much about why he told Jack not to contact anyone. It just felt like the right thing to do. It was strangely relieving to have his random urges explained so logically.

Carolyn Lam was returning to the base's young visitor's room when she heard the girl's words, "You know what it's like… What it's like to not be wanted…" the doctor stopped short.

Wasn't it against nature for one so young to be so wise, so hard, so broken? What had this girl been through?

Adriana looked up when she heard a noise from the doorway. Everyone else in the room followed her gaze to Dr. Lam, who was just entering the room.

"General, Did you get thin information you needed?" She asked.

"Oh, no," O'neill turned his attention to the figure on the bed, "Adriana, do you believe in aliens?"

**Author's Note/Rant:** I apologize for the long wait, and the short chapter. My excuses won't help any, but I'll give them anyway.

I was out of town for a week, and then I had to catch up on all the missed school work. And the end of the quarter was last week. I'm also taking the stupid SAT I & II and the AP Calculus test all within a month or two. Gklfh;rekgnsaj! I'm only a frikkin sophomore! 15 years old. Why do I have to do this now! cough

And, of course, Tori hasn't been able to write much. But YAY! She wrote the first bit of this chapter. ** Applause **

Thank you for the reviews, they definitely made my day.

Unfortunately, the next update won't be until after my AP test which is in the beginning of May (in two weeks)

Please REVIEW!

Thank You

-Lauren.


	6. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **Okay, We're sorry this chapter took so long. This chapter is dedicated to Chase Manson, 1990-2006.

_Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go._

_-T.S. Eliot_

Daniel glared at Jack, "way to be blunt."

The General just grinned and turned back to Adriana.

The girl was staring down at her hands, thoughts flying furiously through her head.

The way Jack had asked her- It wasn't an accusation. She couldn't remember anyone ever asking her that without disapproval in their voice. Either Jack was a really good actor, or he was generally interested.

"What do you believe?" she asked, still absorbed in her thoughts.

Jack tilted his head slightly, as if thinking deeply, "I asked you first."

One of Adriana's eyebrows rose slightly, "It doesn't matter what I believe."

"Actually, it does," Sam cut in, "A couple days ago you said something abou-"

"I promise we won't think any different of you because of what you say." Lam interrupted.

The girl scoffed slightly, she had heard that one before.

She could tell… these people wouldn't stop till they had what they wanted. She might as well get it over with and move onto a new place. "Okay, so I believe in aliens," she asked looking back to Jack.

"Why?"

Adriana bit her lip, she wouldn't tell them. She hadn't told anyone. And she never was going to. "I just do, I mean, how likely is it that only one planet out of thousands, developed living organisms."

Sam was puzzled. When did this child become so mature?

All of a sudden Jack yelped and pulled his vibrating pager out of his pocket, "I've gotta go kids. I'll talk to you later." And with that he skipped out of the infirmary.

…

"Dial up Teal'c and Cameron." Jack said to Walter as he walked into the room.

"Sure thing." He punched in the command on the computer and soon the gate was shimmering a blue light in the gate room. "They're on radio sir."

Jack mouthed his thanks before speaking into the microphone on the desk; "Hey there Teal'c, Cameron, how much longer before those science geeks get their readings?"

There was some background muttering before Teal'c's voice came though. "According to Dr. Lee, another hour. However if we are required it could be faster." Teal'c voice was filled with the desire to get back to earth rather then chaperoning scientists.

"Alright then, no emergency, just get back when you can. Thank, O'Neill out." The gate disengaged.

An hour later Teal'c and Cameron came though the gate fallowed by excited scientist that rushed of to their labs with the new samples collected.

"Greetings O'Neill. What is the problem which required radioing Colonel Mitchell and I?"

"Uh, that girl again. She's been saying some weird things, and I was kind of hoping you two could get something out of her." Jack was rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet like a little kid.

"Indeed." Teal'c began to walk off fallowed by Mitchell.

"Teal'c you might want to cover up." Jack gestured at his forehead, "She believes in aliens but we're yet to confirm it for her, so just keep it earthly." Teal'c nodded and the walked out of the 'gate room handed their weapons to the airmen on duty.

…

The three men entered and Ana looked up from one of Daniel's books she had been reading. "Hi," she said quietly.

"Hey there, this is Teal'c, and Cameron." Teal'c inclined his head and Cameron waved.

Daniel stepped into the room. "Well you're clear to- Oh hi jack." Daniel spoke as he noticed Jack standing in the room.

"Nice to see you too." Jack commented sarcastically.

"Sorry," Daniel mustered quietly. "Anyways," he turned back to Ana, "Lam says you're cleared to leave. Seeing as you haven't been reported missing yet, and this base is dead boring, I was thinking, with Jack's permission of course, that I could take you to the zoo." Both Ana and Daniel turned pleading eyes towards the General.

"Ahw. Sure go have fun. You might want to get her something other then scrubs though." Ana nodded.

"Right, well I had one of the airmen get some things for her. Come on then Ana." Daniel motioned for her to fallow him and she nervously fallowed

…

Forty minutes later Ana and Daniel were in his black land rover and driving down the mountain road towards the Cheyenne mountain zoo. Even after spending that last two years in Colorado Springs none of her foster families had taken her to the zoo, or any other place that was not required.

"So, what do you want to go see first?" Daniel asked breaking the awkward silence, "The giraffes, the lions or the bears?"

"I don't know."

"Well the giraffes are right there when you walk into the zoo, you can buy crackers to feed to them, that's always fun. And all over the zoo there's peacocks and hens. And after we finish at the zoo we can go up the shrine of the sun, the sunset it beautiful up there.

"Sounds good." Ana said quietly looking out the window.

"Ana, I know you've been a lot of bad homes. I was too. But I am going to make that stop. I promise." Daniel said putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Lots of people have said that, but then they get rid of me a week later."

Daniel sighed. "Well I am actually going to do it, I will do all that I can to keep that promise. Anything, you hear? But for now, let's just have fun." He pulled into the parking lot of the zoo. "Right now it is all about you, and what you want to do." He put the rover in park and got out and opened Ana's door. "Want a ride to the gates?" he said turning around, Ana hoped on his back and they ran all the way to the gates. Daniel booth the tickets and they went inside.

It was better then any of the other kids at Ana's school said it was. There were so many people running about having fun, and for once Ana felt like she might be one of them too.

…

…

**Author's Note: ** Tori's back! She wrote the majority of this chapter.

:o We had originally planned for things to pick up in this chapter, but it was moving way too fast to do anything without screwing something up. This is un-beta'd, if you hadn't noticed already. I'm sorry. I'll try to get our supposed beta reader to fix it up.

It's really sad that I have been on this site for over four years. And I still don't know how to make breaks in between lines. Can anyone help?

Tori and I are both extremely indecisive, and couldn't settle on a name.

**Are the different names confusing you? Kaylee/Ana/Adriana?** If that is the case, I could go back and stick with one, or I could clear it up a little when I write…

Oh! If you have any suggestions where this should head, please let us know. We've got a basic plot (which I secretly think is crap—help here would be appreciated), characters, and… that's pretty much it. :x

_If _this fic were to actually go somewhere, where would you prefer it to go? What should happen?

Stays Adriana-centered. Secrets revealed, find her a new life, the end.

Something big happens to Adriana, which pulls SG1 into a big mess.

Follows SG1 around, what they end up doing with Adriana, and their lives after.

Something completely different.

The sun explodes and everyone dies. – wouldn't that make a great read? e.e

Please be aware that because we don't have a specific plot, that we are most likely going to be going back and rewriting a few chapters. I apologize for that.

School finally got out last week. Normally that would mean we would be able to update more frequently, but Tori has a full time job now and I'm taking a couple courses at a local college… We'll try, but no promises.

-Lauren


End file.
